Conventional modular control valve panels have a plurality of individual valve modules equipped with associated valves and fittings to deliver and/or exhaust high pressure air, gas or hydraulic fluid to fluid-operated devices, such as nitrogen gas springs often used in stamping operations to yieldably hold a clamping ring of a die assembly. Examples of such modular control panels, valves and fittings are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,838,527; 5,020,570 and 5,443,580. Examples of gas springs served by such systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,303,906 and 4,838,527, all of the aforementioned patents being incorporated herein by reference.
The modules in these conventional control panels are typically constructed as individual solid rectangular blocks adapted for modular side-by-side mounting in a suitable system panel array. The individual module valve, valve controls and associated fluid inlet and outlet couplings for the remotely associated individual or grouped fluid-operated devices are typically provided in the front and rear faces of each block and sometimes on the top face as well. A fluid supply block and a fluid bleed block are also preferably provided at the opposed ends of the array of valve blocks to form an integrated system for the metered distribution, monitoring and exhausting of high pressure fluid, such as nitrogen gas. Each valve module is individually controlled, preferably by a single valve mechanism. The panel can be expanded or contracted to include any number of valve modules. However, the supply module supplies gas to all of the valve modules in the panel, and all of the valve modules are bled through the bleed module. A common supply passageway and a parallel common bleed passageway extend from side-to-side laterally through each valve module, and intermodule fluid coupling of these passageway segments is provided by tubular alignment pins each sealed by an O-ring at the lateral interfaces of the modules. Another pair of common parallel through-passageways are provided to extend laterally through a central plane of each module for receiving a suitable sized tie rod, or preferably an in-line series of modular nuts and tie rods for clamping the modules together in the panel array, the number of such modular tie rods and nuts being determined by the number of modules in the panel.